1st Round Game 1 - Orlando Sat April 21st 7pm

Like I mentioned above, the Magic turn it over against everyone. They averaged 17 per game this season. You can't give up 58% shooting and expect to win consistently, but I think we can probably expect plenty of bad passes and poor ball-handling from Orlando in the rest of the series.

Yeah, but I was really arguing that we're more likely to see Orlando's shooting percentage going down than their turnover numbers. I don't think they can consistently shoot 58% against the Pistons, but I'm pretty sure they're consistently going to turn it over 15-20 times per game.

I am tired from a long drive home from a friend's house. I had great fun watching the game. The most amusing thing to me was watching Howard miss all those free throws. All season long, I rooted for Howard to make his free throws, but right now he the enemy and I loved every miss.

I could not help enjoying see Arroyo and Darko do well, but I thought that was ok as long as they did well in a losing effort.

I am sure many fans can see that Orlando could make some simple adjustments in who they let play and give us an even tougher series. But rest assured, Coach Hill is the most stubborn guy you will ever meet. He won't change a thing as his team goes down in four.

On our side, two things I did not like. we shortened up the bench a bit too much, which anyone could have predicted would happen, and two, why was Chris Webber out there when we had a good lead with 5 minutes to go. A defensive player should have been put in to hold the lead at that point, not Webber.

By the end of the first quarter all the Pistons starters had gotten into the score book. Good sign indeed when all your guys are hitting shots. But other than Sheed hitting a short jumper, it was all outside shots. (Not counting the fast break score by Tay.) Bad sign. Orlando was beating us badly inside, and this continued all game long. As someone noted (I read the comments here and at micro's joint before doing my report) Orlando shot 60%. Thank goodness for Howards complete inability to hang onto the ball. We did not get that many points off turns really, but we certainly had a whole lot more shot attempts. And if you factor in Howards trips to the free throw line, hey, you can add about 3 or 4 more "turns" right there.

Howard certainly did not hurt us with his offense when you consideer all the turns and missed ft's, but he was their only force on the boards. As he played just about the whole game, Detroit certainly failed (or actually did not even try a bit) to get Howard in foul trouble. Dyess was useless in this game. He made a couple of shots, but all he does is shoot outside shots. Not a chance to get Howard in foul trouble, and he was not hitting his shots for the most part. Yes, he had a good day on the boards, but I know he is capable of scoring inside. I was hoping all those outside shots he took the last couple of regular season games was just target practice, and not an indication that he was going to forget the inside game he had been developing. We need inside scoring from him, and fouls on Howard.

Sure I loved to see those 3's from Sheed fall, but again, it is not going to get Howard in foul trouble. Hopefully this is just part of an overall strategy to force Howard out away from the basket for the series, but I don't quite have that much faith in Saunders that its anything but bad coaching.

CB and Rip took turns abusing Nelson. Nelson hit a few shots, but by no means can he make up for his total lack of D in this one. And fortunately for us Piston fans, this will continue all series long, for again, Brian Hill won't change a thing. Thank goodness for him.

Delfino got inside once, and nailed a few outside shots too. Good D as always. No Flip Murray, minimal time for Hunter. Davis and Maxiell got about 4 mintues each. I can just remember Maxiell cutting inside for that dunk.

This was basically a 7 man rotation, the starters plus Delfino and Dyess. Orlando's bench got considerably more playing time, but still not as much as a typical Hill coached game. Apparently, the fact that the games are Nationally televised, with longer TV breaks, is allowing Hill to leave his starters in longer, which can only be to our benefit, as maybe, no, just one of his starters should be starting.

Webber had a bit of of inside game going, plus he made the one outside shot. Without him we would have near zero inside presence. Tay did not do a lot of scoring but had 6 assists. Him not scoring was no big deal as our real mismatch was so often over Nelson. Got to go with what's easy. Stealing candy from a baby really. Should be the same next game. GO PISTONS!!!!!

I'm not sure if it was just that he got off to a good start, but Sheed really seemed focused today. He went inside early and had a nice shot selection overall. I think it was just his body language though. He seemed quieter and looked like he was really concentrating. There were a couple borderline calls against him (although they seemed like the right calls) and he dealt with them in a semi-positive way.

Dyess- I think the defense was bothering his shot. The Magic seemed to be keeping an eye on him and not leaving him open in his sweet spots.

Dale Davis- heck yeah. I hope he gets minutes in every game this series. He is the perfect guy to frustrate Dwight.

What worries me is that Rip, Sheed, and Chauncey all had very good games and we still could have lost. That is not usually the case.

It is worth reiterating how many bone-headed plays the Magic make. They are toast in a half court game. I'm not sure why they don't run. With their shot blockers and athletic players they could do some damage. Their turnovers would probably be less... since 50% of them now are from trying to feed Dwight in the post.

All in all, this is a good warm up series for us. I was more afraid of Milwaukee last year that I am of these guys. There is just no way when it comes down to it that the Pistons wouldn't be able to out execute the Magic.

The Pistons took Milicic second overall in the next season's draft. He played Saturday despite spraining his foot earlier in the week.
"Darko was great. I wasn't sure if he was going to play, so I asked him right before game time and he just mumbled," Grant Hill said. "I didn't know what that meant, but I guess I know now that mumbling is good. He had a good game here in Detroit, and I know he was dying to do that."

Couple of things. Take all the ifs ands and buts and save them for another game. If Orlando had made more FT's then the game would have been closer and we all know how much differently the Pistons play in close games. They usually find a way to win.

Some good things. Howard was held in check after the break. Ball denial by Sheed there. Grant Hill is intimidated by Prince. There are your 2 best Magic players and the Pistons have answers for them. Some potential problems for the Pistons are Turkoglu ( if he gets hot ) and Ariza. Piston guards have trouble chasing Ariza around and Turloglu presents some matchup problems due to his height. Can switch Prince on Hill to shut him down but if Turk gets hot he can shoot right over Rip.

pretty easy game. didn't get to the palace until late in the 1st quarter because i was doing a road rally (and naturally they calculated the placings wrong and we lost out on prize $). had 2 orlando fans sitting in front of us. the crowd was pretty good, several like-minded fans around me (when darko touched the ball we'd yell "SHOOT IT!!" and such).

while part of our strategy was to foul, the refs did their best to keep the magic in this game and the espn viewers from clicking elsewhere. some of the calls were just ridiculous. howard should've gotten an offensive foul on one possession but instead webber got hit with the call. in another case, in the span of a few seconds, the refs botched 3 calls in a row. or the incorrect blocking call on delfino. or the legitimate block tay had on howard that was called a foul. and the game would've been over had they not called that incredibly lame charging on billups when nelson flopped.

thoughts:
- orlando was lucky they got the benefit of the whistle and shot so well, otherwise this would've been a 25-point blowout.
- darko didn't look bad but it's mostly because they weren't checking him.
- sheed is doing a good job spreading howard out, but no one was crashing the boards for us.
- dice had a good game, but took his shots about 1-2 feet past his normal range.
- delfino played great and looked very confident. but he had a hard time defending grant hill because hill gets so much more respect.
- we got lazy at the end on defense, not moving our legs.
- might wanna try flip against arroyo next game ... their guards aren't a huge threat to score so lindsey's defensive prowess isn't as meaningful, and orlando kept crawling back every time he got into the game.
- it's encouraging that we played 10 guys and tay only had 37 minutes.
- rip and sheed were controlled and very focused.

As someone pointed out, if Orlando had hit FTs and held onto the ball ... they wouldn't be Orlando. That's their weakness and it won't get fixed during the playoffs. But do we always have to make it so hard?

PG worries me - not against these guys, but you know what I mean. Chauncey is so set in his "never hurry" ways, he slows the tempo to a crawl late in the game. Guys stand around, the shot clock ticks down and we launch 'em late. We need a change of pace, but Lindsey and Flip aren't the guys to provide it.

As someone pointed out, if Orlando had hit FTs and held onto the ball ... they wouldn't be Orlando. That's their weakness and it won't get fixed during the playoffs. But do we always have to make it so hard?

PG worries me - not against these guys, but you know what I mean. Chauncey is so set in his "never hurry" ways, he slows the tempo to a crawl late in the game. Guys stand around, the shot clock ticks down and we launch 'em late. We need a change of pace, but Lindsey and Flip aren't the guys to provide it.

- might wanna try flip against arroyo next game ... their guards aren't a huge threat to score so lindsey's defensive prowess isn't as meaningful, and orlando kept crawling back every time he got into the game.

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No, Flip Murray can't help. This is a playoff series. Flip Murray has not played point guard since highschool. The few tricks Flip has been taught would be dried up in the first game. Now, is Hunter any better? Nope. Will Blalock should be playing backup point.

I can tell you exactly what we would have seen last night if Blalock was the backup point. Most times down, Blalock would have gotten to the basket and either scored or set up a another Piston for an easy shot.

Orlando is just a warmup. We have to play Miami or Chicago next round. Right now would be the perfect opportunity to start playing Blalock to get him some playoff experiece going into next round. Here is what our bench should look like: Blalock, Delfino, Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Dale Davis. Dyess needs to come in early and act as a 6th starter, keeping both Webber's and Sheed's minutes down. Note, this is an 11 man rotation.

People objected to this rotation ealier, thinking no way Amir could be ready if the Pistons are not playing him. Guess what though, a whole lot of people go to see him play the last 4 games. Pretty darn impressive. And they say Blalock is not ready. Not ready? I will give you not ready: Hunter and Murray, neither of which is a point guard. Blalock is a point guard, and if used as one to ignite the unit above could do wonders.

Just to complete this post a bit, lets look at the matchups of our bench vs. Orlando's starters. Blalock vs. Nelson. Blalock is plenty quick enough to guard Nelson, and has enough skill getting to the line to get Nelson in foul trouble-not that its a good idea really to get him in foul trouble in the first place since he is a lousy point guard who hurts Orlando by being in the game.) Blalock, being an actual point guard, would totally outclass Nelson in this respect.

Delfino vs. Grant Hill. Hill looks pretty good these days, but against Delfino he ain't scoring. Delfino being our 2nd best behind Rip at moving without the ball would give Hill all he can handle just to keep up with him.

Next, Amir Johnson vs. Turkoglu. Turk would never score at all, never get a singe board vs. Amir, and be totally unable to defend him.

Next, JMAX vs. Battie. This is laughable. Battie might get a rebound or two vs. the shorter JMAX, but Battie would not in his wildest dreams ever score on JMAX or begin to be able to defend the guy.

Finally, Dale Davis vs. Howard. Obviously, this one is all about team D vs. Howard, but you might as well use a tough defender like Dale as much as possible. Orlando wins this matchup, but overall loses by about 40 points.

By the way, no matter how good Amir or JMAX are potentially, they can't score without a competent backcourt giving them the ball. You put the same front court, JMAX, Amir, and Dale, in with Hunter and Murray, and the result would be Murray and Hunter jacking up a bunch of shots and ignoring the tremendous inside advantage we have. In contrast, Delfino and Blalock would be giving all they have for one purpose, getting the ball inside.
(Wart, did not mean to pick on your post-good post-just the best place I could see to stick my post.)

We need to play more zone. Defensively, the zone negates any advantage Hunter may have over Murray, and Blalock simply does not have enough experience playing in the zone to be effective.

I would rather see Murray who if given the ball can score, and otherwise stays out of the way on offense. Hunter on the other hand cannot feed the post, take his man off the dribble and some of those shots last night were off by a good 12 inches.

If we keep playing zone, and force the Magic to play the ball inside to Howard, we will own this series. With the exception of Turk they don't have the shooting to beat us from the perimeter and the more the ball gets forced inside, the more turnovers we will create.

Like The Low, I don't believe in "the switch". What we saw all year is what we are going to see now. The positive for the Pistons is that they rarely play 3 bad games in 10, meaning that we have a chance to win every series, no matter who we are up against.

And something to keep in mind is that this Pistons squad plays very lazy at home. We're going to be a much tougher opponent in Orlando.

The best news we've received is that Chicago is holding serve and we can expect the Heat to do the same. Our next opponent if we beat the Magic will be going 6 or 7, and we should (note, SHOULD) be able to wrap this up in 5.

lee, i understand you are enthusiastic about blalock, but putting a rookie in with basically no NBA experience, in the playoffs, for the most important position on the floor? that's not going to work.

hunter's reputation as a defensive player is extremely important, but like roscoe said i don't think he's all that necessary against a team like orlando. a zone could hide murray's defensive mishaps, plus he should be able to drive and make plays against orlando. he's also shown a propensity for steals and making some gambling defensive plays, which works well with orlando's turnovers.

like the Detroit News article said today - we showed little zone, no pressing, and no half court traps. we won the game pretty easily and got huge leads without having to even show orlando what we're really capable of. as the series lengthens we can tighten the screws.

We need to play more zone. Defensively, the zone negates any advantage Hunter may have over Murray, and Blalock simply does not have enough experience playing in the zone to be effective.

I would rather see Murray who if given the ball can score, and otherwise stays out of the way on offense. Hunter on the other hand cannot feed the post, take his man off the dribble and some of those shots last night were off by a good 12 inches.

If we keep playing zone, and force the Magic to play the ball inside to Howard, we will own this series. With the exception of Turk they don't have the shooting to beat us from the perimeter and the more the ball gets forced inside, the more turnovers we will create.

Like The Low, I don't believe in "the switch". What we saw all year is what we are going to see now. The positive for the Pistons is that they rarely play 3 bad games in 10, meaning that we have a chance to win every series, no matter who we are up against.

And something to keep in mind is that this Pistons squad plays very lazy at home. We're going to be a much tougher opponent in Orlando.

The best news we've received is that Chicago is holding serve and we can expect the Heat to do the same. Our next opponent if we beat the Magic will be going 6 or 7, and we should (note, SHOULD) be able to wrap this up in 5.

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If I recall right, Blalock just played 4 years of college ball, and zones are pretty much the norm in college. In contrast, Murray has never played point guard since highschool, so any experience he has playing zone as a point guard is minimal. Blalock is quick, which helps in a zone. He should do fine. of course, with a solid man to man defender like Blalock, it makes our man to man defense better if we want to go that route.

PS, earlier in the season, Murray was so inept at playing in the zone that Flip Saunders pulled him from the rotation altogether. Murray has done better of late, but not consistently. He still tends to go back to watching here and there. He is gaining experience, but no way can you say he is experieced at playing a zone.

When I last saw Blalock play in the zone here in Detroit, it was like a blind squirrel looking for an imaginary nut.

He may have played zone in college, but this isn't the NCAA. It's the NBA playoffs and he would be facing some of the best players in the world.

I'll agree that he is a decent man defender, but he also tends to defend with his arms and body, not with his feet. Hunter can get away with that because the refs know it is his game, but a rookie like Blalock would be a target the moment he stepped on the court.

He's just plain not ready. He wasn't even able to string several good D-league games together.

I LIKE Blalock. But I like Alex Acker, and Cheick Samb. Doesn't mean I think they give us the best chance to win. Heck, Delfino needs a lot more than 7 minutes out there long before we think about playing Blalock over Hunter/Murray.

When I last saw Blalock play in the zone here in Detroit, it was like a blind squirrel looking for an imaginary nut.

He may have played zone in college, but this isn't the NCAA. It's the NBA playoffs and he would be facing some of the best players in the world.

I'll agree that he is a decent man defender, but he also tends to defend with his arms and body, not with his feet. Hunter can get away with that because the refs know it is his game, but a rookie like Blalock would be a target the moment he stepped on the court.

He's just plain not ready. He wasn't even able to string several good D-league games together.

I LIKE Blalock. But I like Alex Acker, and Cheick Samb. Doesn't mean I think they give us the best chance to win. Heck, Delfino needs a lot more than 7 minutes out there long before we think about playing Blalock over Hunter/Murray.

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Kind of odd that the numbers show Blalock did so well on defense when he played. We do not have to play zone, but I bet if you wanted Blalock to play zone he could learn it just fine in a practice or two-while Murray will never quite get it.

Your idea of playing Delfino at point for a bit is perfectly ok. Especially if it leaves room for Johnson at small forward. A rotation consisting of Billups, Rip, Tay, Sheed, Webber, Dyess, Delfino, Amir, JMAX, and Dale Davis should be able to beat Chicago or Miami. Thats 10 guys who can really play some hoops. But adding in Blalock gives you a complete sub unit, and is the better option.